I would like to share one of my favourite passages of scripture. It speaks about God’s kindness and grace…. In your own time you can read the whole chapter because it is powerful but I will touch on a few verses that touch me the most:

Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and in irons,

Because they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the most High.

Therefore He bowed down their hearts with hard labor; they stumbled and fell down, and there was none to help.

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses.

He brought them out of the darkness and the shadow of death and broke apart the bonds that held them. Psalm 107:10-14

I understand as humans we sin. We get ourselves into trouble by making really bad decisions. We all make mistakes.

The people in the passage I just shared got themselves into trouble. They made all the wrong decisions. They rebelled against God. They were bound and in chains because they rejected God……

Because of their actions they were abandoned with NO ONE to help! They had no one to turn to but……..

They cried to the Lord!!!!! They cried to the Lord in their trouble and He saved them from their distresses! God had every right to leave them but He didn’t. It doesn’t make sense to the human mind. They were on the wrong, they abandoned God…..but in His grace and love and kindness He heard and answered their prayers!!!! That blows my mind and reminds me how little I know God’s grace!!

And that is the trend we see in the rest of the chapter. We see people getting themselves into trouble and God coming to save them as they cry out to Him! For effect I am going to share another story!

Some are fools [made ill] because of the way of their transgressions and are afflicted because of their iniquities.

Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivers them out of their distresses.

He sends forth His word and heals them and rescues them from the pit and destruction. Psalm 107:17-20

God loves you and cares for you not because you are perfect. He knows your every mistake but still loves you. He knows every mistake you are still to make, bad decisions you are still to make but He still extends grace to you. He has given you a chance to cry out to Him. That is how good He is……!!!!! He doesn’t give up on you. He is waiting on you to turn to Him! It’s scripture like this that humbles me. I don’t understand the beauty of God’s grace and love but I am thankful for it because without it I would be abandoned and dead! I would be in hell with no hope of rescue!!

The last part of the chapter is so powerful. It talks about men who do their business at sea! I would guess these men are sailors and have great experience and understanding of the sea. They are totally qualified to be out at sea. But something happens out at sea! They encounter a storm!!

[Those aboard] mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the deeps; their courage melts away because of their plight.

They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end [all their wisdom has come to nothing].

Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. Psalm 107: 26-28

For a while they tried to rely on what they know to get them out of the storm but that didn’t work! How many of us have tried to get ourselves out of trouble? It says “all their wisdom has come to nothing”.

God is so good because even when they tried to solve a situation in their own strength and failed, God by His grace saved them!!!! As I end I would like you to think about His grace! It is so amazing! He wants you to rely on Him, on His grace. He knows you are human and He wants to deliver you. He wants to save you from sin. No matter what you have done, no matter how bad it is, know that He wants to heal you and set you free. He wants to break the chains that have bound you! It is not to late for you……Turn to Him and He will answer you!!!

Whoso is wise [if there be any truly wise] will observe and heed these things; and they will diligently consider the mercy and loving-kindness of the Lord. Psalm 107:43

I don’t know about you but I have weeks where I feel like I am literally in a boxing ring with sin. Monday I won, Tuesday I lost, Wednesday sin won, Thursday I won and so on and so on. Other weeks I know nothing can touch me. Christ died for my sins and I have been delivered and that’s it!

This week has been a week of fighting guilt and shame and condemnation. Sin seems to be getting stronger in my life, getting the upper hand. I have been delivered for crying out loud but sin seems so strong!! But it also feels like I am in an unfair battle. There is a part of me that wants to sin. It deceives me and betrays me to the enemy. I understand more and more what Paul was speaking about now. My desire is to be free, to get closer to God more and more but he betrays me. I betray me!!!

With all those things going on within me The Lord showed me something!

“For because He Himself [in His humanity] has suffered in being tempted (tested and tried), He is able [immediately] to run to the cry of (assist, relieve) those who are being tempted and tested and tried [and who therefore are being exposed to suffering]. Hebrews 2:18

Jesus came in a form of a man, was tested and tried but didn’t succumb to sin. He humbled Himself so as a High Priest He could identify with our struggles!

He understands everything we go through and I mean everything!

He doesn’t sit by and watch us in our suffering, No!! Instead He comes to our rescue.

The word says, He IMMEDIATELY runs to our cries!! He IMMEDIATELY runs to assist and relieve us.

If you need help cry out to Him! He wants to help you. He understands what you are going through. The fact is this, we are all exposed to suffering but in your suffering don’t remain silent. In my suffering I was silent and that is when guilt and shame and all those other lies penetrated me but they can’t win if you open your mouth. The enemy cannot win if you call on the One who saves!!! His love for us is so deep and cannot be fathomed. He is our Savior……Amen

When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she grieved for her husband. When the time

of mourning was over, David sent someone to bring her to his house. She became his wife and bore him a son.

But God was not at all pleased with what David had done,

1 Samuel 12:26, 27

We all know what happened here. David slept with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife but to cover it up he got Uriah

who was a faithful solider to him killed! Bathsheba may not have known what David did but the point is she became the king’s wife. She may not have had a say in any of this either. A king was free to do whatever he wanted in those days.

When I read this story a thought came to me. Between Uriah being killed to Bathsheba giving birth to a son was

at least nine months. I don’t know how long the time of mourning was but all we know is it was at least nine months

when all this took place. David was in sin for nine months! He knew taking someone’s wife was sin. He knew murder

was a sin. David loved God. He had an intimate relationship with Him but David was blinded in this season. This post is

not about how bad David was. We are all sinners. David sinned but so do we.

What I want to show you though is how as sinners sin can destroy us. During this ‘nine months’ we hear nothing.

There is no Psalm that we read during that period! We don’t hear of David’s exploits during that time. Nothing was recorded during that time. David was in sin and he didn’t even know it!

If that could happen to David, a man after God’s heart then surely it could happen to us. And please note, David

didn’t snap out of it by himself. He didn’t realize what he was doing by himself. God intervened!!!! If God did not intervene who knows how long it would of gone on for?

And this is what this post is about……God intervened!

God did not leave David in his sin. He saved him. By God’s grace David was disciplined and forgiven! That is good news for us indeed.

We will do crazy things and left to our own we will not win, BUT……But God does not leave us to ourselves. He is watching over us.

He has extended His grace and mercy to us! We serve a really great God! He sent His son to die for us!

I was so encouraged when I got that revelation. God is for me and no matter how crazy it gets God will help me. I hope it’s an encouragement to you as well.

Generous in love – God, give grace!

Huge in mercy – wipe out my bad record.

Scrub away my guilt,

soak out my sins in Your laundry.

I know how bad I’ve been;

my sins staring me down.

Psalm 51:1-3

But that is not the end of the story. God turned this dark and terrible situation for good.

David went and comforted his wife Bathsheba. And when he slept with her, they conceived a son. When the son was born they

named him Solomon. God had a special love for him and sent word by Nathan the prophet that God wanted him named Jedidiah (God’s beloved).

2 Samuel 12:24, 25

Solomon would not have been born if David and Bathsheba never met. I am not saying what David did was right. He sinned! What I am trying to say though is God turned a bad thing into something wonderful. And He will do the same thing for us. We may think our sin is too much and God cannot use us but that is not true. God has forgiven you and will turn what the enemy meant for death into life…..

He has amazing things for you despite what you have done. Sin does not define who you are anymore, God’s grace does. He is a truly amazing God!!!

I have been going through a testing time this couple of weeks. The year started off well and it seemed like it was going to carry on like that but it didn’t. Things happened and everything is different now. I have some major life changing decisions I have to make. In fact as I look back in my life I see all the hard times I have been through. There were times when there seemed like there was no answer. I had nothing. No plan B, nothing but God! He was all I had and He came through. A few years ago our economy crashed. Food became scarce, inflation sky rocketed, people didn’t know what to do. Imagine going to the supermarket and finding nothing on the shelves! Imagine going to a coffee shop but finding out they didn’t have flour to bake anything? Everything came to a standstill. The average person’s job was to find any place that was selling any kind of food. People had money but couldn’t buy anything! Those were really testing times!!

Just one of the many pictures you would of seen in 2007-2008. No food in the country! But God came through for us!

But even in those very testing times God came through!!! He was there for me. He provided for me and cared for me.
Then there was the time when I had no job. I had no income what so ever and until today I don’t know how I survived. God helped me!

With all that said, why does God allow us to go through hard times and suffering? You may be going through some hard times and wondering the same thing. Well, let us look at the word for the answer.

We don’t want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it. We felt like we’d been sent to death row, that it was over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally – not a bad idea since he’s the God who raises the dead. And He did it, rescued us from certain doom. And He’ll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing. 2 Corinthians 1:8-11

Did you see that? Paul was going through some really trying times even to a point where he thought he was not going to make it. It felt like he was on death row! But as he was going through all that something happened. He saw something! He realized he was supposed to trust God and not in himself. He came to a realization that he was not the answer to his problem, God was!

Is this why God allows us to go through hard times and suffering, so we can trust Him? Does He want us to realize, He is the only One who can save us?
God does not want us relying on our own strength because it’s not enough and because there is only one God and one Savior. Our strength is not strength at all. We are not strong and wise and perfect. We need God.

What is the “take home”then?

God allows us to go through pain and suffering because He wants to show Himself strong. He wants us to come to the realization that our strength is not enough. He does not want us trusting in our own ability! Instead, He wants us to look to Him and trust Him….. God bless

Christmas is around the corner. I love everything about Christmas, from the carols being played all around, the spirit of giving, the joy, the food, the weather, kids waiting in anticipation for their gifts from Santa, the Christmas trees, the Christmas decorations and more……I could go on and on. Christmas is about all those things but it goes deeper than that.
To know and understand the real meaning of Christmas we need to go back a few thousand years to the time of Adam and Eve.

They lived in harmony with God. They had an amazing relationship with God. God communed with them on a daily basis. Everything was perfect until the enemy deceived them. The bridge between man and God was broken and it looked like the enemy had won. Man no longer had direct access to God. The relationship that man had in the garden of Eden was broken. The communication line had been severed or so it seemed. The intimacy was lost. Man was truly abandoned or so it seemed, but………

God had a plan all along. His son Jesus was the embodiment of that plan. Jesus came to repair what had been destroyed. He came to restore a long lost relationship. Because of what Jesus did we were restored. Because of Jesus we were saved. The enemy who thought he had won found out he actually lost the battle! He was defeated. The bridge was repaired never to be destroyed ever again. Man could finally come freely to God.

This is why Christmas is so important. It’s not just about Santa and all the other things I mentioned. It’s a reminder to us about a relationship restored. Realize, the bridge has been repaired. You and everybody else can come to Him. He made it possible and this is what Christmas reminds me off. I have been challenged to engage God more starting this Christmas, actually starting now leading to Christmas and after. The world needs to know the bridge has been repaired. The lost need to know, the lonely need to know, the abandoned need to know. When Christ was born it signified a start of something new. Things would never be the same. It is true for you as well. Because Christ came and died for you things will never be the same for you. You are in a better place. And Christmas is a time to remember that. The bridge has been repaired. Christ is waiting. You can come to Him any hour of the day. Bring your worries to Him. Bring your pain, bring everything to Him. He is waiting for you to come to Him. Re-establish communication with Him. This is a call to us all. I am reminding myself! I have let so many things distract me from Christ. When I could of prayed I watched television, or hung out with friends, went onto Facebook, picked up a novel, got lost in my own thoughts……I did everything but spend time with Him. But the bridge has been repaired and Christmas reminds us of this. Will you heed the call? Will you focus on Him, draw near to Him?

As I end I would like to leave you with a statement that really spoke to me from a fellow blogger and friend. She hit the nail on the head when she made the statement. Here it is:

The
world makes us think that presents
and gifts are essential in Christmas
season, but the truth is, Jesus
didn’t come to just give us another
festive season, He came to give us a
life that is full of wholesomeness,
awesomeness and happiness.